A virtual meeting between the Parliamentary Development Unit (PDU) Team, Media Team from the Senate Secretariat, and Communications & Digital Team Leads from New Zealand Parliament on “Sharing Experiences and Best Practices on Parliamentary Media” was held on the 20th September 2022, in the Senate Committee Room No. 4 Parliament House, Islamabad.
To carry forward the partnership between the Senate Secretariat and the Secretariat of New Zealand Parliament for mutual and inclusive parliamentary development in line with the vision of the Hon’ble Chairman Senate for improving parliamentary performance; this was an interactive session with the Media teams from both sides.
Mr. Mir Shai Mazar Baloch (Director General, Coordination) welcomed the participants. Ms. Daniela Maoate-Cox (Communications Team Lead) and Winnie Nadi (Digital Team Lead) New Zealand Parliament, expressed grief over the catastrophic floods in Pakistan.
Director Media Senate Ramzan Sajid, Senate Secretariat, gave a detailed presentation on media management in connection to the assistance provided to the House, Senate committees, and the Senate Secretariat. It was highlighted how the Media Directorate, Senate Secretariat, was striving to increase public awareness and participation in the work of the Parliament and putting efforts to institutionalize Parliament’s public outreach. Moreover, pointing out some constraints in connection to utilizing the latest ICTs tools and platforms for official work, he urged the need for capacity building of the human resource working in the Media Directorate and speeding up public outreach programs with the latest tools of social/digital media.
Ms. Daniela Maoate-Cox (Communications Team Lead) and Ms. Winnie Nadi (Digital Team Lead) New Zealand Parliament, gave a joint presentation focusing on the use of social/digital media for improving parliamentary development on the hand and reaching the public through social media tools for proper feedback mechanisms on the issues discussed in the parliamentary debates and the parliamentary committees’ proceedings, on the other. It was emphasized that the use of social/media has become a new normal, and will continue to be dominating in all spheres of public communication modes. Moreover, a training session may be arranged to train the human resource for effective utilization of communication tools in terms of community engagement and feedback mechanisms, especially through Instagram.
Director General (Coordination) appreciated and proposed that a “Working Group on Parliamentary Media Management” may be formed for future interactions, knowledge-sharing, and sharing of experiences in respect of using social media applications/platforms for effective public outreach. Ms. Daniela Maoate-Cox (Communications Team Lead) and Ms. Winnie Nadi (Digital Team Lead) New Zealand Parliament appreciated the suggestions and agreed to continue to work together for a mutually beneficial partnership.
The participants had an interactive Q&A session and discussed points on the technical training of the ICTs tools in social/digital media management, and public outreach strategies and found many common areas to work on in the future.
The meeting ended with a vote of thanks from both sides.
Source: Senate of Pakistan